Iowa congressional candidate Melissa Vine fires campaign manager after ethics complaint

Melissa Vine, who is running for Iowa's 3rd Congressional District, fired her campaign manager a week after her campaign was the subject of an ethics complaint over donations to an Iowa PAC.

Vine's campaign confirmed in a statement that Lou McDonald, a partner and founder at Title Fight, had been let go.

"A staffer took actions that do not reflect our values, and he is no longer a part of our campaign," a spokesperson said in a statement to the Register. "I'm committed to bringing people together to fight for abortion rights, our public schools, and working families, and that's what I'm going to continue to do in this campaign."

McDonald did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The ethics complaint, filed by the head of the progressive PAC Iowa Unity Coalition, accused McDonald of trying to make dozens of donations in others' names ahead of the group's vote to endorse in the 3rd District race. The group's chair, Mitch Henry, said McDonald told him he had "registered all the members and then voted for all the members."

"Our campaign manager made a clerical error on signing our team up for these Iowa Unity Coalition events, and he reached out to ActBlue to reverse the transactions once Mitch Henry brought them to our attention," Vine said in a statement last week responding to the complaint.

The Iowa Ethics and Campaign Disclosure Board is set to meet Thursday afternoon to discuss the complaint.

Vine is running against Lanon Baccam, a former U.S. Department of Agriculture official and veteran, for the Democratic nomination in the toss-up district. The winner will face Republican U.S. Rep. Zach Nunn.

Galen Bacharier covers the Statehouse & politics for the Register. Reach him at gbacharier@registermedia.com or (573) 219-7440, and follow him on Twitter @galenbacharier.

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Iowa US House candidate Melissa Vine fires campaign manager